Food waste disposer



Dec. 6, 1960 c. H. EWING 2,963,231

FOOD WASTE DISPOSER Filed April 3, 1958 II 1% 22 l? 20 INVENTOR CLIFTON H. EWING amz United FOOD WASTE DISPOSER Filed Apr. 3, 1958, Ser. No. 726,082

3 Claims. (Cl. 241-194) This invention relates to food waste disposal apparatus and more particularly to an improved comminuting device for food waste disposer-s.

The invention is particularly applicable to food waste disposers of the type having a rotatable cornminuting member arranged within a housing. The comminuting member is secured to the shaft extension of a vertical axis motor and includes a disc-type flywheel having swingable impellers pivotally mounted on the upper surface thereof. The impellers swing on their pivots and cooperate conventionally with a toothed, stationary shredder which is spaced from the periphery of the flywheel. The waste particles are comminuted and then flushed through an outlet to a sewage connection.

It has been proposed to construct the flywheel of parts stamped from metal sheets or plates rather than a casting, in order to reduce manufacturing costs. However, the cost reductions possible from forming the flywheel from stamped parts can be realized only when a small number of assembly operations is required. In addition, there is the problem of providing a comminuting member which has sufiicient structural rigidity to comminute large and tough articles, and also sufficient driving area between the contacting surfaces of the shaft and the comminuting member to insure that these surfaces will not be damaged when a large amount of driving effort is required. Maximum driving effort is required in the situation where waste particles become jammed between the comminuting member and the shredder, and unless the torque transmitted between the motor shaft and the comrninuting member can be distributed over a large area, the applied force will be sufficiently concentrated to cause yielding and consequent damage to the driving surfaces of the motor shaft or the driven surfaces of the comminuting member.

In accordance with this invention, there is provided a comminuting member comprised of stacked plates which are secured tightly together by fastening means including a rivet. Also included in the comminuting member are swingable impellers which are pivotally connected to the stacked plates against the uppermost plate surface by means of an upper extension of the rivet. This arrangement not only provides a firm anchorage for the imarea 2,963,231 Patented Dec-1 6, 1960 ice ' minuting member embodying this invention;

pellers but also allows the plates and impellers to be secured with a minimum of assembly effort. Some radial and vertical clearance is provided between the impellers and their fastening means in order to permit relatively frictionless swinging movement of the impellers. The comrninuting member is suitably secured to the motor shaft, but to assist in locking the plates together for unitary rotational movement with the shaft, the lowermost or stop plate has upturned cars which extend through and beyond the other plates. These ears also serve as both a rotatable shredder and a stop to limit the angular movement of the swingable impellers about their respective pivots.

The various objects, features and advantages of the Fig. 2 is an enlarged plan view of the comminuting member as viewed from line IIII of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the stop plate mounted on the motor shaft to illustrate the flat driving surfaces between the stop plate and shaft;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional View taken along line IVIV of Fig. 2 to illustrate in detail the means for fastening the impellers and plates of the comrninuting member; and

Fig. 5 is a vertical sectional view taken along line VV of Fig. 2 to illustrate in detail the assembled comminuting member of Fig. 1.

The housing of a domestic food waste disposer embodying the invention is indicated generally by the numera-l 1t), and includes an upper inlet 11 and an outlet pipe 12. Arranged within the housing 10 is a motor 13 having an upwardly extending shaft 14. A rotatable comminuting member 16 is secured to the shaft 14 by means of a bolt 17, which is screw-threaded into an axial recess formed in the upper end of the shaft 14. Spaced outwardly from the periphery of the member 16 is a thin-walled, annular shredder 18 having perforations and inwardly extending projections formed therein. The shredder 18 is stationary and cooperates with the member 16 in a conventional manner during operation of the disposer.

Referring especially to Figs. 2 and 5, the comminuting member 16 includes a thin, sheet metal comminuting disc 19 which is stacked above a relatively thick drive plate 21. The drive plate 21 has a small surface area compared to the surface of the disc 19 and is best seen in Fig. 2. Two impellers 22, also formed from sheet metal, are secured for pivotal movement to the flywheel disc 19 against the upper surface and on opposite sides thereof by fastening means including rivets 20 which also connect the disc 19 and the drive plate 21 together. The rivets 20 will be described in greater detail hereinafter. Arranged below the disc 19 and the drive plate 21, and also in stacked relationship therewith, is a stop plate 23 which has a pair of upturned ears 24- (one for each impeller 22) which extend upwardly through vertical openings 25 formed in the flywheel disc 19 and the drive plate 21. Each of the ears 24'projects beyond the upper surface of the comminuting disc 19 and is disposed inwardly of the impeller 22 adjacent thereto and in the path of inward movement of that impeller 22. In these positions the ears 24 act as stops to limit the inward angular movement of the impellers 22. The portions of the cars 24 which project above the upper surface of the disc 19 also assist the cornminuting action of the member 16 by kicking, or bouncing, smooth round objects, such as orange and grapefruit seeds, away from the center of the member 16, outwardly toward the shredder 18.

The bolt 17 retains the stacked parts 19, 21 and 23 in axial position, one against the other, on the motor shaft 14. By this arrangement, the ears 24 lock the disc 19, the drive plate 21 and the stop plate 23 together for unitary rotational movement. The stop plate 23 has a flat-sided central opening formed therein which follows the contour of the motor shaft 14. The shaft 14 has a pair of oppositely disposed flat sides which bear edgewise of the stop plate 23 against the flat sides of the central opening in the stop plate 23, thereby transmitting torque between them. The line of contact between the surfaces 3 of the shaft 14 and the stop plate 23 is best seen in Fig. 3. A central flat-sided opening is also formed in the drive plate 21 similar to the opening in the stop plate 23 to provide additional torque-receiving, bearing surfaces.

As mentioned previously, the drive plate 21 and the disc 19 are fastened together by additional fastening means in the form of rivets 20 which also serve to pivotally attach the impellers 22 to the disc 19. Referring to Fig. 4, the shank portion of each rivet 20 has an enlarged shoulder portion 26 therein which engages the upper surface of the disc 19 and together with the lower head of the rivet tightly clamps the disc 19 and the drive plate 21 together. Each rivet 20 has an enlarged shank portion 27 extending above the shoulder portion 26 to the upper head of the rivet which functions as a firmly anchored pivot for an impeller 22. Sufficient clearance is provided between the impellers 22 and their rivets 29 to permit free swinging movement of the impellers.

During rotation of the comminuting member 16, which is counterclockwise as viewed in Fig. 2, the impellers 22 are subjected to centrifugal forces which cause them to swing outwardly into engagement with ridges 28 formed in the disc 19 and which act as stops to limit outward movement of the impellers 22 toward the shredder 18. Food waste objects and particles swept outwardly by the impellers 22 are comminuted by engagement with serrations on the shredder 18. Objects or particles which tend to jam between the impellers 22 and the shredder 18 cause the impellers 22 to swing inwardly about their rivets 20, thereby increasing the space between the surfaces of the impellers 22 and the shredder 1-8 and permitting the object to be freed from the impellers 22 without jamming the comminuting member 16 against continued rotation. The extent of angular movement of each impeller 22 is preferably generous to permit large waste objects or particles to pass between the impellers 22 and the shredder 18. A positive stop for inward movement of the impellers 22 is, however, provided by the upwardly extending ears 24 of the stop plate 23, described previously. The extreme positions which the impellers 22 can occupy are illustrated in Fig. 2 wherein the left-hand impeller 22 is shown in its outermost position in full lines and in its innermost position in dot-and-dash lines.

If desired, the disc 19 can be provided with drain openings 29 in accordance with conventional practice, and it may also be provided with radially extending ridges or indentations 30 for stiffening purposes.

From the foregoing it will be apparent this invention enables a comminuting member to be inexpensively constructed of lightweight, sheet-metal stampings while insuring that the member is sufliciently rugged to give long service. Particular attention is given to providing sufficient driving area between the torque transmitting surfaces of the motor shaft 14 and the other elements of the comminuting member 16 to insure that no damage to these surfaces will ensue from load conditions which require maximum torque transmission. The above described configuration for the stop member 23 enables this element of the comminuting member 16 to perform more than one function, since it not only transmits torque to other elements of the comminuting member 16 but functions as stops for the impellers 22 and actually assists in the comminuting action by insuring that waste objects do not remain at the center of the comminuting member. It will be noted that, while several elements, or parts, go together to make up the comminuting member 16, the assembling of these elements is rendered simple and easy by the unusual manner in which the impeller fastening rivets 20 are employed. Aside from the rivets 29,

only the comminuting member retainer bolt 17, which is usually employed in food waste disposers, is needed to secure the several elements of the comminuting member together.

While the invention has been shown in but one form, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that it is not so limited, but is susceptible of various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit thereof.

What is claimed is:

1. In food waste disposal apparatus, the combination of a housing having an inlet for receiving material to be comminuted and an outlet for discharging comminuted material, animproved comminuting member disposed within the housing, and a vertical axis motor having an upwardly extending shaft arranged to drive the comminuting member; said comminuting member comprising several plates stacked one above the other on said shaft and rigidly attached thereto, said plates including a stop plate, a drive plate above said stop plate, and a flywheel plate above said drive plate, at least one impeller, fastening means for each impeller securing the flywheel and drive plates together and pivotally securing the impeller to the flywheel plate against the upper surface thereof, said flywheel and drive plates having openings therein adjacent and inward of each fastening means, said stop plate having projecting portions which extend therefrom through said openings and above the upper surface of said flywheel plate in the path of inward pivotal movement of said impeller.

2. In food waste disposal apparatus, the combination of a housing having an inlet for receiving material to be comminuted and an outlet for discharging comminuted material, an improved comminuting member disposed within the housing, and a vertical axis motor having an upwardly extending shaft arranged to drive the comminuting member; said comminuting member comprising at least two plates stacked one above the other on said shaft and rigidly attached thereto, an impeller, and means pivotally securing the impeller to one of said plates against the upper surface thereof, said one plate having an opening formed therein in the path of inward pivotal movement of said impeller, the other of said plates having an upturned projection extending through and beyond said opening in driving engagement with said one plate.

3. In food waste disposal apparatus, the combination of a housing having an inlet for receiving material to be comminuted and an outlet for discharging comminuted material, an improved comminuting member disposed Within the housing, and a vertical axis motor having an upwardly extending shaft arranged to drive the comminuted member, said shaft being provided with at least one flat driving surface; said comminuting member comprising a plurality of plates stacked one above the other on said shaft and rigidly attached thereto, said plates having centrally located apertures which fit said shaft at said driving surface, an impeller, and means pivotally securing the impeller to one of said plates against the upper surface thereof, said one plate having an opening formed therein in the path of inward pivotal movement of said impeller, another of said plates having an upturned projection extending through and beyond said opening.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNlTED STATES PATENTS 2,730,308 Jordan Jan. 10, 1956 2,760,730 Jordan Aug. 28, 1956 2,828,085 Brezosky Mar. 25, 1958 

